Last June, the Philippine
entertainment industry suffered a major loss. Legendary veteran actor Eddie
Garcia, 90 years old at the time, died late that month. While his was already a
ripe old age, the circumstances of his passing were contentious, seeing as he
had been shooting a scene for an in-production new TV series when he tripped on
some wiring and hit his head, resulting in a neck and cervical fracture. GMA7,
the network producing the soap that Garcia was co-starring in, was placed under
scrutiny by government agencies for the lack of medical personnel on scene to
help the actor in case of accidents.
With the September 11 release of
the results from a preliminary report done by the Department of Labor and
Employment (DOLE) regarding GMA7’s possible culpability in the accident that
led to the death of Eddie Garcia, the Kapuso Network presented its own official
comments on the findings this Monday, September 16 according to CNN Philippines. Three points raised by
the DOLE report last week that were considered to be violations of the Occupational
Safety and Health (OSH) Law and its implementing rules and regulations were in
turn refuted by GMA7.
The first point raised in the
DOLE report took the network to task for not submitting a report on Garcia’s
grave accident within a 24-hour period from its occurrence as required in the
OSH Law. To this, GMA7 pointed to regulations in said law that gave exceptions
to incidents of “work accidents resulting in disabling injury or death.” They
did however pass the results of their own initial investigation to Garcia’s
family, a copy of which was given to DOLE a month after the incident.
For point two of the DOLE
investigation, they cited the apparent lack of a DOLE-certified safety officer
at the TV shooting location where Garcia was injured. The Kapuso Network
however noted that the safety officer requirement of the OSH Law applies only
to regular workplace venues. As they were using temporary outside location rather
than a fixed indoor set there should be no violation. In any case, GMA notes
that they did have a sufficient number of DOLE-certified safety officers to
look after their employees.
Regarding the final point, GMA7
refuted the DOLE assertion that no first aid professional was on their set to
immediately attend to accidents like what Eddie Garcia suffered. The network
noted that at least three of the production staff that fateful day in June 8
were duly trained and qualified to perform first aid and life-saving procedures
like CPR, and that what happened to the movie and TV legend was ultimately an
accident that no regulatory precautions could have foreseen.
When DOLE issued GMA7 a directive
to provide a list of outside filming locations for all their current and
upcoming TV dramas, the Kapuso network could not provide not. They explained
that it was not a refusal to abide by department rulings but rather an
unfortunate improbability of compliance, due to most of these outside locations
being either tentative, or one-off and transient by nature, with different
supervisors working different places. What they could provide was a list of
their regularly-used sets for show tapings, usually indoor locations like
houses.
GMA concludes its official
commentary on the DOLE report with the assurance that they will remain in full
cooperation with the department in providing a final word on the tragic
circumstances that led to the farewell of such an actor as Eddie Garcia from
showbiz.
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